Why the ending of Mad Men is so good
Mad Men ran from 2007 - 2014 and for a very long time it was the reigning show on television winning Jon Hamm several awards probably and definately winning my heart, I love you Jon, I watched Confess, Fletch and you were the only reason. The writing, visual style and acting all collided here to create 1960's New York where we follow an Ad Agency called something like a bunch of old dudes names shoved together. Whilst we primarily follow the shows lead, Donald Draper who is actually Dick Whitman (good choice on changing that one lad), the people who work at the agency are all great too and they pretty much all have their own arcs, usually the point of those arcs is to highlight a particular thing or theme from the 60's.
Don is a man of mystery from the very first episode, dude spends the whole episode with hippies, making deals and banging some lady and then he goes home to his wife! Ouch. And Betty, his wife is played by January Jones for crying out loud what is this guys problem. She gets fat in season....6 i think and then she gets cancer so overall, not a fun time for Betty. Dons backstory and brilliance is driving force behind the show, after all, Don isn't as advertised...hahaha....but seriously I think the idea that Don has fabricated his entire life and persona is what makes him so excellent as a lead in a show based around the advertisement business. Mr Weiner is a genius.
The ending of Mad Men is great, sorry, I worked briefly for Screenrant once (briefly because my grammar is as dead as my grandma) and they only every get their point across in paragraph 3 and they're so successful so there is the point. This journey through time with Don and the cast, the crash of everything Don loves and cherishes, everything constantly changing and shifting, Don's inability to MAKE people love him and his inability to feel happy once they do is brutal and then we reach the therapy scene in the final episode. Leonard is very much like Dick Whitman, invisible to his peers, he isn't seen and he has a dream of sitting in a fridge shelf, waiting to be picked. Don is being picked, Dick isn't. This idea of being overlooked, of not being worth anything is something that Dick has overcompensated for to the extent that Dick isn't real anymore. This realisation is a big turning point I think for Don who has this answer to why he feels so shit all the time, he's left his dick behind.
During the final season Coke is looking for an ad agency to start a brand new campaign that will thrust them into the limelight. Coke is basically the Leonardo Dicaprio of Advertising campaigns, dude doesn't miss, except for maybe The Beach which is strange because Alex Garland wrote that but man was it average. Don can't find that genius idea, and then, as he's meditating in peace one of two things happen. Either Donald Draper invents the famous "Give the world a Coke" campaign or, he finds peace and leaves it to someone else. I think the former is more likely but I enjoy the idea that it's kind of a choice. Does Dick come out and see the sun, maybe Don finally finds someone normal who loves him for him, or maybe Don makes millions, remarries and carries on this tired routine of jumping ship. That final moment in a show already so ambiguous is genuenly one of my favourites because I first interpretted it as him just kinda letting go, but then I heard most people disagree with me and thats why its great. Now look at the ending of Soprano's. I wont spoil that here but for me, that ending is not as good because there isn't this choice of one of a couple of things happened, it just kinda ended, and there a theories but who when they first watched had anything to say except, "where the fuck is the rest of the episode you slimy mothball!".
Donald Draper is one of my all time favourite characters, (hey there's a list I could make) because of the duality of his existance. I think he's deeper than most characters even if he's more Don than Dick. The ending of this show is a masterclass of ending Dons story because while it may be a cop out, it lets us decide who won out and where it would go.
